In December 2021, IHS hosted a discussion with Robert B. Talisse on his recent book “Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side.” Talisse, a philosophy professor at Vanderbilt University, has conducted extensive research on the forces that divide us politically and discursively. The conversation fed off material from his first book “Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place,” which argued that we must engage in activities that have nothing to do with politics if we want to revive our democratic institutions.
Comment: Talisse is certainly preaching the latest political philosophy. He dismissed Deweyan democracy and adopted Charles Peirce’s, which I agree is a step forward. But he is severely limited within his own view of democracy and cannot move the theory of democracy a step forward. Such move forward would be the subject of my forthcoming book “Critical Review of History of Political Philosophy.”